Republicans

The Washington Post’s front page today featured an article with the title “McConnell aims to rein in GOP to help it win White House.” The internet version of the same story is called “New Senate majority leader’s main goal for GOP: Don’t be scary.” The sentiment is not without merit. It’s not in the interest of Republicans or conservatives for a Republican Senate to scare voters. Few would dispute this »

Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert announced on Fox and Friends this morning that he will challenge John Boehner as Speaker of the House in the new Congress. I hope Gohmert wins, and urge conservatives in the House delegation to vote for him. I have generally defended Boehner in the past, but in my view his conduct with regard to the continuing resolution/omnibus spending bill that was passed during the lame duck »

In 2007, Mike Huckabee was an ex-office holder running, in effect, for talk show host. His time as governor of Arkansas over and his finances nowhere near where he wanted them to be, Huckabee, it seemed to me, was hoping to parlay a presidential run into a lucrative career doing what he does so well — talking. Huckabee succeeded. His better than expected (other than by him) run for the »

As you undoubtedly know, liberal politicians and pundits have been hailing the claim that House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana attended a meeting of a white supremacist group in 2002 as the biggest story since Bridgegate. Scalise himself said that he had no recollection of addressing such a meeting, but if he did it was an error in judgment for which he apologizes. Now it turns out that the »

I suspect that Jeb Bush is launching his presidential bid so early in part as a preemptive strike against Marco Rubio, his fellow Floridian. If Bush gains the inside track on key donors, especially ones from Florida, it might cause Rubio to think twice about running. If Rubio stays out, the benefit to Bush is obvious. To forestall Bush’s attempt at a preemptive strike, Rubio promptly announced that he is »

It’s official: the Democrats are divided on their path to 2016. The Washington Post, in front page story has declared it so. The division is already known to anyone who has been paying attention. Steve Hayward has been writing about it for a long time. Pass me some popcorn, Steve. The division, explains the Post, is between pragmatists like Hillary Clinton (just to pick a name) and hardcore ideologues like »

In an attempt to salvage “Cromnibus,” President Obama sent his chief of staff to Capitol Hill to present House Democrats with the following argument: the budget deal under consideration today is better for liberals than what Democrats will be able to get next year, when Republicans control both chambers of Congress. From the Democrats’ point of view, the president’s message seems both indisputable and dispositive. Yet Democrats resoundingly rejected Obama’s »

As expected, congressional leaders have reached a budget deal. The government will be funded to the tune of $1.01 trillion. This amount will keep all agencies running through September of next year, except for the Department of Homeland Security. It will be funded only through late February. Mitch McConnell says that the Senate will pass the bill before it leaves town this week. Unfortunately, this means that legislators, not to »

The Washington Post reports that, on the whole, wealthy Republican donors are unwilling so far to commit to a candidate for president. According to reporters Matea Gold and Tom Hamburger, the donor class is “wary of fueling the kind of costly and politically damaging battle that dominated the 2012 primaries.” More to the point, it’s unclear at this early juncture which potential candidate it makes the most sense to support. »

Senate Republicans reportedly are divided over the nomination of Loretta Lynch to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General. The source of the division is President Obama’s executive amnesty. Jeff Sessions has said, “I don’t see how a person can serve as attorney general if they’re going to participate in a massive nullification of American law.” Under this sensible view, Lynch should be rejected unless her testimony persuades Senators that she »

The Republican congressional leadership has formulated its short-term strategy for responding to President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty. It wants to pass a continuing resolution that will fund most of the government for a full year, but will fund the Department of Homeland Security — which is responsible for implementing the amnesty — for only a few months. It’s not a terrible strategy, but neither is it optimal, for two reasons. »

The Obama Non-Enforcement Doctrine holds that a president is not required to implement or enforce laws passed by Congress with which he disagrees. Obama’s use of the doctrine sets an interesting precedent for the next chief executive, who likely will be a Republican. For example, a Republican could adopt the Obama Non-Enforcement Doctrine with regard to corporate income taxes by directing the IRS to cease all efforts to enforce those »

Yesterday afternoon I got the chance to chat with former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton at the reception for National Review’s post-election cruise kickoff event featuring him, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in Fort Lauderdale preceding our departure this afternoon. I was slightly happy to see him (photo below) and he could not have been more gracious. We discussed the work of his John Bolton PAC »

I rarely disagree with John, and I consider this a good sign for me. However, I don’t believe that the GOP is America’s Party, in the sense of being ascendant nationally, or that the Republican brand is strong. I view the two elections that made Republicans ascendant in the Senate and House — 2010 and 2014 — as referenda on President Obama, not as evidence that the electorate trusts Republicans »

This map, which originated with National Journal, has been making the rounds on Twitter. It it similar to the one that was popular a few years ago that showed the United States as red or blue, by county. But this map shows the Congressional districts based on the just-completed election: In a sense, maps like this one are misleading because the small blue areas are basically the cities, where lots »

How did ABC’s Good Morning America cover last night’s Republican sweep? By telling its listeners, this morning, that “the Republican brand is still very damaged.” We’ve been hearing such statements about the Republican brand for years from ostensibly mainstream commentators. But where does the main stream actually flow? And what is the state of the Democrats’ brand, about which we never seem to hear anything? The reality is that, seemingly »

Michael Barone assesses the impact Barack Obama has had on the Democratic Party. It’s not a pretty picture: When Obama took the oath of office in January 2009, there were 257 Democrats in the House of Representatives. Going into this election there are 201 (including two vacant Democratic seats). Psephologists universally agree Democrats will suffer a net loss of House seats…. That will leave them with a number probably somewhere »